32 bakeries continue to whip out cakes from wood-fired ovens

Kolkata: In the run-up to Christmas, local bakeries with the last of Kolkata’s wood-fired ovens are working overtime to serve delicacies to queues of families who are still holding on to the woody aroma and moist texture of cakes. Around 200-year-old Ajmiri Bakery is one of the approximately 32 confectioneries in central Kolkata with a wood-fired oven. The heat is on until 11pm every night for roughly two to four months every winter to toss out 800 fruit cakes a day. “We ship our cakes overseas as far as Australia and the UK. We get orders from there. There are also many locals who send them to families abroad,” said baker Sheikh Hasibul Rahaman. “Cakes baked in wood-fired ovens have a distinct taste and aroma that makes it special to our customers. There is a unique dense moisture that cannot be replicated in electric ovens,” he added. However, Ajmiri’s legacy stems not from its crowd-pulling fruit cakes but for being one of the few places in Kolkata to supply Bakarkhani, a spiced flatbread with Mughal origins. Just a kilometre and a half from Ajmiri is the central Kolkata haven of wood-fired bakeries, serving the community of local Bengali Christians for up to a hundred years. A warm nutty fragrance wafting through a shabby Taltala lane transforms it into a cozy nook for scores of customers taking in the warmth of the oven as they wait for their orders to emerge from the fire. “The customers list their preferred ingredients or bring us ingredients and we prepare their cake accordingly. We get new customers every year,” said Kazi Rahul Amin, working at Kajal Bakery, established by his grandfather a century ago. Down the street, one finds several narrow passages illuminated by the haze of a fire, churning out the Christmas wish for huddled customers. “Most of us are Christians. We have been visiting the bakeries every Christmas for the last decade. There are eight such bakeries in Taltala,” said a lady sitting between Kanchan and Leader Bakeries. There are around 32 operational wood-fired bakeries in central Kolkata and about 300 in the city and its outskirts, according to Ariful Islam, chief executive officer of the West Bengal Bakers’ Association. With increasing pressure to convert to electric means, most bakers see this tradition coming to a close in the next five to 10 years.